Take my fort, please

Tyrone Burke, National Post10.09.2012

At the north end of Lake Champlain, Fort Montgomery's southern ramparts rise a sheer 16 metres above the waves. The heft of the massive fortification - fashioned from the very same limestone used to build Radio City Music Hall and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. - is unchanged by the passing of time and the gentle lapping of the lake.Tyrone Burke
/ National Post

At the north end of Lake Champlain, Fort Montgomery's southern ramparts rise a sheer 16 metres above the waves. The heft of the massive fortification - fashioned from the very same limestone used to build Radio City Music Hall and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. - is unchanged by the passing of time and the gentle lapping of the lake.Tyrone Burke
/ National Post

At the north end of Lake Champlain, Fort Montgomery's southern ramparts rise a sheer 16 metres above the waves. The heft of the massive fortification - fashioned from the very same limestone used to build Radio City Music Hall and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. - is unchanged by the passing of time and the gentle lapping of the lake.Tyrone Burke
/ National Post

At the north end of Lake Champlain, Fort Montgomery's southern ramparts rise a sheer 16 metres above the waves. The heft of the massive fortification - fashioned from the very same limestone used to build Radio City Music Hall and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. - is unchanged by the passing of time and the gentle lapping of the lake.Tyrone Burke
/ National Post

At the north end of Lake Champlain, Fort Montgomery's southern ramparts rise a sheer 16 metres above the waves. The heft of the massive fortification - fashioned from the very same limestone used to build Radio City Music Hall and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. - is unchanged by the passing of time and the gentle lapping of the lake.Tyrone Burke
/ National Post

At the north end of Lake Champlain, Fort Montgomery's southern ramparts rise a sheer 16 metres above the waves. The heft of the massive fortification - fashioned from the very same limestone used to build Radio City Music Hall and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. - is unchanged by the passing of time and the gentle lapping of the lake.Tyrone Burke
/ National Post

At the north end of Lake Champlain, Fort Montgomery's southern ramparts rise a sheer 16 metres above the waves. The heft of the massive fortification - fashioned from the very same limestone used to build Radio City Music Hall and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. - is unchanged by the passing of time and the gentle lapping of the lake.Tyrone Burke
/ National Post

At the north end of Lake Champlain, Fort Montgomery's southern ramparts rise a sheer 16 metres above the waves. The heft of the massive fortification - fashioned from the very same limestone used to build Radio City Music Hall and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. - is unchanged by the passing of time and the gentle lapping of the lake.Tyrone Burke
/ National Post

At the north end of Lake Champlain, Fort Montgomery's southern ramparts rise a sheer 16 metres above the waves. The heft of the massive fortification - fashioned from the very same limestone used to build Radio City Music Hall and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. - is unchanged by the passing of time and the gentle lapping of the lake.Tyrone Burke
/ National Post

Related

It isn't at all ordinary for a fortress to come up for sale, but then, Fort Montgomery is no ordinary fortress. That it guards the world's longest undefended border is just the first of this quirky property's paradoxes.

"The fort has been in private hands since it was auctioned by the U.S. government in 1929," says Jim Millard, a historian who has advocated for the fort's preservation for more than a decade. "And it's been put up for sale many times over the years, but the last big burst of publicity came when the owners put it on eBay in 2006."

Ultimately, the online listing generated only a single serious bid of just over US$5million, but the sale was never completed. Since then, U.S. real estate has tanked and the property listed for US$10-million a decade ago had a reserve of just $2.95-million in its most recent online auction. The seller even offered free local pick-up to prospective buyers, but Fort Montgomery, listed at fortmontgomery.net, still didn't sell.

At the north end of Lake Champlain, the fort's southern ramparts rise a sheer 16 metres above the waves. The heft of the massive fortification - fashioned from the very same limestone used to build Radio City Music Hall and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. - is unchanged by the passing of time and the gentle lapping of the lake. The ancient Egyptians shipped limestone up the Nile to seal Giza's pyramids from the ravages of time.

The shimmering stone is a building material that can last millennia, but most of Fort Montgomery hasn't even made it into the 21st century.

The rest of the fortress sits in varying states of decay. Its eastern and northern ramparts were stripped to build a bridge from the fort's location in Rouse's Point, N.Y., to nearby Vermont during the Great Depression. This indignity exposed its sprawling 19th century interior of 71 fireplaces and multitudinous archways of brick and stone to the elements. It opened the east-facing courtyard to a spectacular sunrise views of Vermont's Green Mountains. The sweeping scene exudes a decaying grandeur more reminiscent of the crumbling castle on the coast of Wales than the 2x4 construction on curvilinear street plans that dominates the suburbs of Montreal's south shore - just less than an hour's drive away.

In spite of its evident historical value - the fort is listed on the U.S. National Park Service's National Register of Historic Places - the 94-acre property has an unusually permissive zoning that would allow for both commercial and residential uses. It was built to garrison 800 soldiers, and its courtyard alone could easily accommodate a sprawling residence that blended modern materials with historic stone features. But with additional adjacent acreage, disrupting the fort's aesthetic and historical integrity isn't necessary. As it stands, the only restriction to the space's development are the buyer's imagination, and, of course, the fort's condition. Estimates on its restoration have ranged from $4-to $10-million, but not everyone agrees it can even be done.

"It has always been my opinion that restoring the fort isn't possible," Mr. Millard says. "What should be done is preservation and interpretation. I'd like to see the site bought and cleaned up by the state of New York or the National Park Service. Ironically, the fort's dismantling makes it wonderfully 'interpretable'. Nowhere else can we see cross-sections of a fort's massive walls, or the arches within the casemates built to support heavy guns. And only here can the sad lessons of how not to care for our priceless historical treasures be shown in such a startling way."

If it seems surprising that none of this has been done already, it shouldn't. For a country that takes great pride in its military acumen, Fort Montgomery's story is an all too tangible reminder of a pretty embarrassing strategic error. This fort sits on Canadian land, or at least on land that was once Canadian.

With an invasion by the powerful British navy a looming possibility in the wake of the War of 1812, the United States shored up its defences on Lake Champlain, which - via a series of rivers and canals - allowed navigation from the St. Lawrence River to New York City. A new fort was built, but the Americans were left red-faced when the small, sandy peninsula where it stood proved to be on Canadian soil.

They promptly abandoned the fort, and for 24 years, it was effectively part of Canada. When the Canada-U.S. border was firmed up in 1842, the structure known as 'Fort Blunder' was ceded to the United States. The modest fort was replaced with an impressive stone fortress. The new Fort Montgomery was imposing, but it nevertheless retained the stigma attached to its ignominious predecessor.

"It has contributed to the sense that the fort was an embarrassment. That it was built in another country, and never should have been built at all," says Mr. Millard. "Fort Montgomery should have been protected and it wasn't. One bastion has fallen into the moat, and another will follow, if it's not reinforced. No other U.S. fortification has been subjected to such treatment."

Despite being full of both history and possibility, the old fort's future remains uncertain. "I've been working on behalf of these ruins for over a decade," Mr. Millard says in frustration, "and after dozens of tours and interviews, days of clean-ups by dozens of volunteers, appearances on local and national TV in the United States, and the fort actually being put on 'save' lists by historical preservation groups, nothing good has happened. My main frustration is with the state and local authorities, with the lack of interest from responsible public agencies in the United States. If it's not reinforced, it will fall into the lake, of that I'm certain. I'd love to see a partnership with Parks Canada, which maintains Fort Lennox, just up the river. That fort was built in response to Fort Montgomery. It's wonderfully preserved, and a credit to Canada. The forts' story - their history - is shared. Our nations share a fascinating history. Cooperation would be wonderful, and it makes sense."

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